‘There are legal limits on us’: Piers Morgan apologizes for defamatory Jay-Z and Beyoncé interview with Jaguar Wright
After releasing a defamatory interview about the couple with Jaguar Wright, Piers Morgan was forced to apologize to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Morgan is a broadcaster and journalist known for his unethical practices. Before starting his Piers Morgan: Uncensored talk show, he was involved in a number of scandals, including using practices like phone hacking to obtain information and publishing fake photographs. He has continued to raise ethical concerns on his talk show, especially after he conducted an exploitative interview with the woman who allegedly inspired Baby Reindeer. However, his latest scandal raised even more legal red flags than usual.
On October 3, he invited Wright to his show. Wright is a musician who has collaborated with artists like Jay-Z and The Roots in the past. As a musician, she claims she worked in the same circles as Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was recently arrested on numerous charges of sexual assault and sex trafficking. While she has been levying accusations against Combs and other artists for years, little evidence has arisen to support her claims or even confirm that she knew Combs well. During her appearance on Piers Morgan: Uncensored, she dove into unsubstantiated claims against Jay-Z and Beyoncé. She claimed Jay-Z is just as much of a “monster” as Combs and that he and his wife are involved in “nasty things” that “a lot of people don’t want to talk about.” Morgans published the interview despite the unsubstantiated claims and quickly faced the consequences.
Piers Morgan apologizes to Jay-Z and Beyoncé
Shortly after the defamatory interview was published, Morgan heard from Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s lawyers. While many assumed he was sent a cease-and-desist letter, the couple’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told TMZ he actually gave Morgan an ultimatum: “Remove that false accusation, or a court is going to order you to.” The threat of legal action had the desired effect. Morgan immediately cut the portions of the interview with Wright that mentioned Jay-Z and Beyoncé and issued an apology.
He confirmed he heard from the couples’ lawyer, who told him the claims were “totally false and have no basis in fact.” He stated:
Jaguar, unexpectedly, made several serious allegations about Jay-Z and Beyoncé during that interview. As I said in the moment, they were not present to respond or defend themselves, but now they have. Their lawyers contacted us to say that those claims were ‘totally false’ and have no basis in fact, and we’ve therefore complied with a legal request to cut them from the original interview.
Morgan went on to acknowledge that censoring interviews isn’t common on his talk show but that the incident proved there were “legal limits” on him. He stated, “And we apologize to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.” However, he still tried to defend himself in the situation, claiming that Wright would’ve had an “audience with or without shows” like his. It’s true that Wright likely would’ve made her claims whether on his show or not. He’s wrong, though, that they would’ve reached the same audiences.
Morgan’s Uncensored show boasts 3.36 million subscribers on YouTube, while Wright’s social media presence is mainly limited to Instagram, where she has just 331k followers. Although she has collaborated with some more prominent artists, she’s not what one would consider a household name. On social media, her conspiracies weren’t likely to go beyond her small audience of fans and those interested in her allegations. That’s very different from Morgan, who gave her a national platform and allowed her to spread her serious allegations to an audience of millions.
There will always be conspiracy theorists, and the best we can do is not give them any more attention than they already get. Morgan had a responsibility not to give someone who has made unsubstantiated claims in the past an even bigger platform. Additionally, when his interviewee waded into dangerous territory with her claims, he had a responsibility not to help her spread obviously defamatory statements. Hopefully, the speedy legal response from Jay-Z and Beyoncé will help Morgan realize he has ethical and legal obligations as a talk show host that he can’t just blatantly ignore.
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